Just got home from Mother Courage. Last saw it in the National Arts Centre in Ottawa over 35 years ago. There was no comparison. Your production blew theirs away in every way, sets, music, acting and costumes. Congratulations to all on such a great piece of work. —J.B.

The Rogue production of Mother Courage is another barn burner. It is so terrific. —P.M.

After the play, we had a wonderful, long discussion about Mother Courage. I know I've said this before, but thank you for enriching our lives so deeply. —K.D.

Although the entire cast is wonderful, Cynthia Meier has set the bar very high for 2013 with her portrayal of Mother Courage in tonight's opening of the play at The Rogue Theatre. If you miss this one, you will regret it! —M.C.

This is quite possibly the best theater I have ever seen in Tucson. —C.A.

I saw the production of Mother Courage that the [New York] Public Theatre did in the Park a few years ago. There were a lot of stars in it. But I wasn't moved the way I was by this production at The Rogue. —J.J.

Everything about the production was exceptional as usual and I thank you again for bring such wonderful theater to Tucson! —L.K.

PRODUCTION SPONSORS: PAMELA SHACKANDSUMNER MILENDER & EDIE MICHELSON

Directed by Joseph McGrathTranslation and Adaptation by David Hare
Produced by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc. New York City

January 10–27, 2013

Thursday–Saturday 7:30 P.M., Sunday
2:00 P.M.
plus a Saturday 2:00 P.M. Matinee January 26Sunday January 27 is sold outYou may call The Rogue Ticket Line at 520-551-2053
to be added to a waiting list.

Musical Preshow begins 15 minutes before curtain
Discussion with the cast and director follows all performances

In what many regard as Brecht’s masterpiece, Mother Courage profiteers from a constant state of war, as she loses her children to it one by one.
Her cynical manipulation of the miseries of others robs her of her title, and at the play’s end she is mother to no one.
Written in a burst of energy after the invasion of Poland, it is one of our principal ruminations on the nature of war.

David Morden as The Chaplain, Cynthia Meier as Mother Courage and Dylan Page as Kattrin

War and Business Are HellThe Rogue Theatre takes on Bertolt Brecht’s unflinching look at our dependence on war

Preview of Mother Courage by Kathleen
Allen in the January 10 Arizona Daily Star

Direction

Joseph McGrath (Director) is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Drama and is the Artistic Director for The Rogue Theatre. For The Rogue Theatre, Joe authored and directed Immortal
Longings, and directed As I Lay Dying, The Real Inspector Hound, The Decameron, Our Town, Red Noses, Endymion, The Maids (winner of the Arizona Daily Star 2007 Mac Award for Best Play), and The Balcony. Joe was most recently seen as Griffin in The Night Heron, the Jade Emperor in Journey to the West, Leontes in The Winter’s Tale, Patsy in The New Electric Ballroom, in the ensemble of Shipwrecked! and as Andrew Undershaft in Major Barbara. In 2009 Joe won the Arizona Daily Star Mac Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Tobias in A Delicate Balance. He has toured with John Houseman’s Acting Company, performed with the Utah Shakespearean Festival, and he is a frequent performer with Ballet Tucson appearing in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Cinderella, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Dracula and The Nutcracker. He has also performed with Arizona Theatre Company, Arizona Opera, Tucson Art Theatre, and Arizona OnStage. Joe owns, with his wife Regina Gagliano, Sonora
Theatre Works, which produces theatrical scenery and draperies.

Director’s Notes

“Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.”

—Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children is an enormous play. Bigger, perhaps, than anything the Rogue has attempted thus far. This play is rooted in the material world. It makes no pretentions to the spiritual, or even the poetic. The physical aspects of this story are, for the most part commodities to be bought, sold, and haggled over. Including the people. These commodities must be there in front of us.

Brecht’s message is quite serious. He speaks of social issues, injustice, and capitalism. He clearly has an agenda, and he wants us to hear it in a particular way. And it is often impossible to separate this message from its mode of delivery. Brecht made use of what he called the “alienation effect.” It is an oddly named, and I think, poorly elucidated feature of Brecht’s epic theatre. Essentially, he wants us to keep our judgment engaged along with our emotions and imagination. He decried the tendency of audiences to be seduced into some intoxicating flight of fancy, and not appreciate the implications and choices being made by the characters of the stories he tells. Thus, through a variety of techniques he keeps reminding us that we are not on a northern European battlefield or a tobacco shop in Sezuan, but in a theatre.

In the case of Mother Courage, the story has some of the qualities of a picaresque, which includes among other things, the tendency in the scene titles to tell us what we’re about to see. These days we’d call that a “spoiler.” But his purpose is to allow us to observe how and why a known event unfolds.

You might notice that unlike many social dramas, Brecht focuses primarily on the oppressed and not the oppressor. He wants to show us how we participate in our own oppression, and not give us the easy out of pointing out the bad guy and assigning our suffering to someone else. His theatre of choices tells us that if we want things different, we must make different choices.

A word about religion. For Brecht, religion’s purpose is merely to rationalize the status quo, and keep the rich rich and the suffering suffering. This lack of a spiritual dimension in his work can leave us earthbound, but he keeps us alive with music and great heaps of humor and irony, not to mention the bracing experience of truths told and covers ripped away. Nothing is inevitable in Brecht’s world, or guided by the hand of heaven, but is the product of choices made here and now. We are the masters of, and are accountable for, our own lives.

Stop participating in your own oppression, he tells us. There is no fate, only choice.

Playwright

Bertolt Brecht (Playwright) was born in 1898 in Bavaria, and studied medicine at Munich before writing his first plays. In 1928, he wrote the satirical The Threepenny Opera with the composer Kurt Weill, and shortly thereafter he developed his theory of epic theatre. With the rise of the Nazis, he went into exile in Scandinavia, where he married long-time collaborator and actress Helene Weigel and wrote Mother Courage and Her Children on the eve of Hitler’s invasion of Poland. During his eight years in the United States and Switzerland, he wrote some of his most famous plays, The Life of Galileo, The Good Woman of Sezuan, and The Caucasian Chalk Circle. In 1949 he returned to East Germany, where he established the Berliner Ensemble with Weigel. The Ensemble became the most famous German touring theatre of the postwar era. Brecht dedicated himself to directing his plays and developing the talents of the next generation of young directors and dramaturgs. Brecht died in 1956, and Weigel continued to run the Berliner Ensemble until her death in 1971.

Matt Bowdren as Swiss Cheese

Dylan Page as Kattrin and Marissa Garcia as Yvette

Cynthia Meier as Mother Courage and Dylan Page as Kattrin

Photos by Tim Fuller

Cast

Mother Courage

Cynthia Meier

Kattrin

Dylan Page

Swiss Cheese

Matt Bowdren

Eilif

Christopher Johnson

The Chaplain

David Morden*

The Cook

David Greenwood

Yvette

Marissa Garcia

Recruiting Officer & others

Steve McKee

Sergeant & others

Ryan Parker Knox

Commander & others

Craig Howard

Young Soldier & others

Connor Foster

Regimental Clerk & others

Lee Rayment

Farmer’s Wife & others

Dani Dryer

*Member
of Actors’ Equity Association,
the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United
States,
appearing under a Special Appearance Contract

Cast Biographies

Matt Bowdren (Swiss Cheese) holds an M.F.A in Performance from The University of Georgia and a B.F.A from the University of Arizona. At The Rogue, Matt has appeared in The Night Heron, Journey to the West, As I Lay Dying, Major Barbara, The Real Inspector Hound, New-Found-Land, The Four of Us, Six Characters in Search of an Author, and The Goat. Other Arizona credits include The Pillowman (The Now Theatre) Romeo and Juliet (Southwest Shakespeare), and Titus Andronicus (Arizona Repertory Theatre). In Georgia, Matt has been seen in The Shape of Things, Betrayal, Endgame, and The Comedy of Errors. In New York City, Matt performed in Somewhere In Between with Collaborative Stages, and Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Hudson Shakespeare Company.Matt Bowdren’s performance is supported in part by a generous gift from Dave Lewis.

Dani Dryer (Farmer’s Wife) debuted with The Rogue Theatre in September in the role of Subodhi in Journey to the West. She has performed recently with Arizona OnStage Productions as Shelby in Steel Magnolias. Most of her professional work has been with ETCETERA, the late-night arm of Live Theatre Workshop, in such roles as StarCat (Psycho Beach Party), Kelly (Dying City), Riff Raff (The Rocky Horror Show), Roberta (Danny and the Deep Blue Sea), Yitzhak (Hedwig and the Angry Inch), April (Savage in Limbo) and Bottom (A Midsummer Night's Dream). Dani has also performed recently as Mariah in Winding Road Theatre Ensemble's production of United. Dani is painfully aware that nothing in her life is possible without the love and support of her family, friends, and her amazing and enlightened partner, Kara.

Connor Foster (Young Soldier) is performing in his second show with The Rogue Theater. He first worked with The Rogue in 2008 when he appeared as The Boy in Six Characters in Search of an Author. Connor is currently attending the University of Arizona as an Acting major in the B.F.A program. He just recently debuted in his first show at the University, Freshmeet and TENderloins, with his nine outstanding classmates.

Marissa Garcia (Yvette) performed with The Rogue Theatre as a Townsperson and a musician in The Night Heron, Guanyin in Journey to the West, in the ensemble and as a musician in As I Lay Dying, as Barbara Undershaft in Major Barbara and as Dorcas in The Winter’s Tale. She is a Tucson native and received her BFA in Acting/Directing from the University of Arizona. Since graduating, Marissa has performed and directed with companies throughout Arizona, Colorado and California. She was seen on Los Angeles stages in premieres of Bernardo Solano’s Lost and Evangeline Ordaz’s Visitors’ Guide to Arivaca, a show she was also involved in here with Borderlands Theater. Other credits include: Ana in Living Out (2005 Mac Award Nominee–Best Actress), Julia in School of the Americas (Borderlands Theater), Thomasina in Arcadia, Cordelia in King Lear (Arizona Repertory Theatre), and Evelyn in Close Ties (Catalina Players).Marissa Garcia’s performance is supported in part by a generous gift from GBL Family Fund.

David Greenwood (The Cook) was a member of the cast of The Rogue Theatre’s first production, The Balcony, and has recently appeared in The Decameron, The Real Inspector Hound, Major Barbara, As I Lay Dying, The Winter’s Tale, The Night Heron and Journey to the West. He has appeared locally in Shining City and The Birthday Party at Beowulf Alley Theatre and The One-Armed Man, The Disposal and The Glass Menagerie at Tucson Art Theatre.David Greenwood’s performance is supported in part by a generous gift from an anonymous donor.

Craig Howard (Commander) is originally from Colorado where he started his professional acting career at the age of eight playing Winthrop in The Music Man. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri / Kansas City Conservatory of Music where he earned his Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance. Since moving to Tucson in 1998, he has worked as a stunt man, a mascot, and a mason (among other things) as well as appearing in productions for Arizona Theater Company, The Gaslight Theater, and Beowulf Alley Theater. Craig is thrilled to be joining the talented cast and crew for his first production here at The Rogue, and sincerely hopes you enjoy this performance of the powerful and moving Mother Courage.

Christopher Johnson (Eilif) has previously appeared at The Rogue in The Night Heron, Journey to the West, The Winter’s Tale and As I Lay Dying. He serves as Co-Artistic Director of Winding Road Theatre Ensemble, where he recently directed Speech & Debate. Christopher also spent five seasons as Artistic Director of Etcetera at Live Theatre Workshop and has appeared elsewhere with Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre, Invisible Theatre, Brachiate Theatre Project, Borderlands Theatre and Sparrow & Cicada Theatre.Christopher Johnson’s performance is supported in part by a generous gift from Lorine Sweeney.

Ryan Parker Knox (Sergeant) is a South Dakota native and University of SD graduate. Ryan moved to Tucson in October of 2011 after living for just over a decade in Minneapolis/St. Paul where he worked on over 70 productions for over a dozen companies. Ryan has appeared in The Rogue Theatre productions of The Night Heron as Neddy and Journey to the West as Sha Monk. Some of his favorite past roles include Jerry in The Full Monty, and the title roles in Picasso at the Lapin Agile and The Who’s Tommy, all for Paul Bunyan Playhouse in Bemidji, MN, as well as Henry in Henry V, Phillip in Orphans, and Bradley in Buried Child. “RPK” (or just Ryan) is extremely thrilled to be a Rogue Acting Company Member and hopes you enjoy his work this season. Special thank yous to his supportive family and friends all over the Midwest (OOTM), and his 4 littlest fans, Olivia, Dylan, Audrey, and Parker...his beloved nieces and nephews.Ryan Parker Knox’s performance is supported in part by a generous gift from Jan Stewart.

Steve McKee (Recruiting Officer) appeared as Camillo in The Rogue Theatre production of The Winter’s Tale. He has worked with many local theatre companies and been featured in independent and student films. Favorite roles include Harpagon in The Miser, Halder in Good, Terrence in Breaking Legs, A.C. in Beowulf Alley Theatre's Death of Zukasky and Panch in Arizona OnStage Productions' 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Ensemble work includes Sweeney Todd and The Full Monty with Arizona Onstage Productions. Steve has also appeared locally with Live Theatre Workshop and Borderlands Theatre.

Cynthia Meier (Mother Courage) is the Managing and Associate Artistic Director for The Rogue Theatre for which she has directed and acted in many plays. Most recently she was seen as Bolla in The Night Heron, Clara in The New Electric Ballroom, Addie Bundren in As I Lay Dying and Lady Britomart Undershaft in Major Barbara. In the past year, she directed Shipwrecked! (2012 Mac Award for Best Comedy), The Winter’s Tale and Journey to the West. In 2008, she received Arizona Daily Star’s Mac Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Rogue’s production of The Goat. Cynthia has also performed in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Arizona Repertory Theatre), A Streetcar Named Desire (Arizona Theatre Company), Blithe Spirit and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Michigan Repertory Theatre), Romeo & Juliet and Chicago Milagro (Borderlands Theatre), A Namib Spring (1999 National Play Award winner), and Smirnova’s Birthday, The Midnight Caller, and The Ballad of the Sad Cafe (Tucson Art Theatre). Cynthia holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from the University of Arizona.Cynthia Meier’s performance is supported in part by a generous gift from Warren & Ellen Bodow.

David Morden (The Chaplain) has appeared with The Rogue Theatre as the Dragon King in Journey to the West, Polixenes in The Winter’s Tale, Louis de Rougemont in Shipwrecked!, Rinieri in The Decameron, Stephano in The Tempest, Brabantio and Montano in Othello, Editor Webb in Our Town, in the ensembles of Animal Farm and Orlando, as Madame Pace in Six Characters in Search of an Author, The Pope in Red Noses, Yephikhov in The Cherry Orchard, The Man in the Silver Dress in the preshow to The Maids and Glaucus in Endymion. He has acted locally with Arizona Opera (The Pirates of Penzance, The Threepenny Opera), Arizona Onstage Productions (Assassins), Actors Theatre (The Bible: The Complete Word of God (Abridged)) and Green Thursday Theatre Project (Anger Box, Rain), of which he was a co-founder. David has also directed The Rogue’s productions of Major Barbara, Ghosts, A Delicate Balance, The Goat (2008 Arizona Daily Star Mac Award), Six Characters in Search of an Author and Krapp’s Last Tape, Not I and Act Without Words. Most recently, David directed Inspecting Carol for Arizona Repertory Theatre at University of Arizona, where he is also an instructor in the School of Theatre, Film and Television.David Morden’s performance is supported in part by generous gifts from Kate Phillips & Sheldon Trubatch and Peter & Meg Hovell.

Dylan Page (Kattrin) is currently a Studio Art and Anthropology student at the University of Arizona. She has performed with The Rogue Theatre as Mopsa in The Winter’s Tale, Dewey Dell in As I Lay Dying, Jenny Hill in Major Barbara and Felicity Cunningham in The Real Inspector Hound. Her other recent credits include Flaminia in Commedia dell’Arte Day with the Illegitimate Theatre Ensemble, Janice in Member of the Wedding (Arizona Onstage Productions), and Evelyn in The Shape of Things (Arizona Repertory Theatre).Dylan Page’s performance is supported in part by a generous gift from Judy & Ward Wallingford.

Lee Rayment (Regimental Clerk) is a graduate from the University of Northern Colorado. Lee has recently returned from a brief stint abroad. He was assistant director for The Night Heron, and has performed as Moska in Journey to the West, Archidamus in The Winter’s Tale, in the ensemble of As I Lay Dying, and as Stephen Undershaft in Major Barbara for The Rogue Theatre, Katurian in The Pillowman for The Now Theatre (for which he received the 2011 Mac Award for Best Actor from the Arizona Daily Star), Salieri in Amadeus, Pantalone in The Servant of Two Masters, and Mr. Cladwell in Urinetown.

Preshow Music

Musicians

Dawn Sellers

Tim Blevins

Daniel Mendoza

Lorine Sweeney

Tim Blevins, Violinist and Composer

Photo by Tim Fuller

Music Director’s Notes

One of many of the challenges Brecht gives to performers of his play Mother Courage and Her Children is that while there are lyrics to songs throughout the play, as in Shakespeare’s works, no music is provided for those lyrics. While some music scores do exist for the play, we wanted to use original music for our production.

It was over a year ago when Tim Blevins, who’d performed with us in Pinter’s Old Times, stopped by to share some music he’d just finished composing. When I heard it, I thought, wow! That song sounds like Mother Courage. Cindy and Joe agreed and so began our show.

In May, Tim and I began working in earnest and have continued through the rehearsal of the show to build on his original music to create a world for Brecht’s characters.

From the rousing opening song as Mother Courage peddles her wares, to a young soldier’s gleeful dance of death, a woman’s remembrance of love lost, a Chaplain’s question of faith, and a cook’s hunger, each song has been written with our performers and the situations of their characters in mind.

But that’s not all Brecht requires of us. This play travels through time and place, through war and worlds. To help transport us through this epic landscape, we have created musical transitions between the scenes of the play. Musicians and actors join together in creating a soundscape that is both on and around the stage.

Join us as it carries us along with Mother Courage on her journey.

—Dawn C. Sellers, Music Director

Musican Biographies

Dawn C.
Sellers (Music Director) performed in
The Rogue’s production of Shipwrecked! and Our Town, was Assistant
Director for Naga Mandala, Assistant Director and pianist
for Ghosts, and Music Director for The Tempest, Old Times,Major Barbara, Shipwrecked! and The New Electric Ballroom, and music co-director for The Winter’s Tale. Dawn was a pianist, composer and educator prior to receiving an
MFA in dramatic writing from Carnegie Mellon University. She has
composed music for Off-Broadway and is published by Hal Leonard,
Alfred and Kjos Music Publishers. In Tucson, her plays have been
produced by This Side Up Productions, Beowulf Alley Theatre Company,
Live Theatre Workshop, and Live Theatre Workshop’s Etcetera
series, as well as The Arizona Women’s Theatre. She is also
listed on nytheatre.com, which features emerging women playwrights.Dawn Seller’s music direction is supported in part by a generous gift from an anonymous sponsor.

Tim
Blevins (Composer, Violinist) is a violinist and composer living in Tucson, Arizona. Having taken a Violin Performance degree at the University of Arizona, Tim now makes a living writing and performing music, both locally and on the road. His latest credits include playing the violin and keyboard synthesizer for the Arizona Theatre Company’s 2012 production of Next to Normal, and composing the music for this production of Mother Courage and Her Children.

Daniel Mendoza (Double bassist) is a native of Guadalajara, Jalisco. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in Music at the University of Guadalajara in 2008; while there he performed twice as a soloist with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Jalisco. He has given lecture recitals throughout Jalisco addressing the history and repertoire of the double bass to adults, as well educational recitals for young audiences. Daniel recorded his first solo studio album, “Contrabajoso: Songs inspired by the double bass,” in 2010. He earned his Master’s in Music performance degree from the University of Arizona in 2012.

Lorine Sweeney (Vocal Coach, Pianist, Singer) graduated from the University of Arizona with a degree in Engineering. While she was an undergraduate, she would frequently steal away from her studies to star on the stage of the Marroney Theatre in musical comedies. After a successful career as a public CEO, The Rogue beckoned her back to the stage to rekindle her first love of music. With many thanks to her husband, Charles, and her patient friends, Renie is happy to be a part of this mad, mad world once again.

Ryan Parker Knox as The Sergeant

Photo by Tim Fuller

Designers

Costume Design

Cynthia Meier

Lighting Design

Clint Bryson

Scenic Design

Joseph McGrath

Production
Staff

Stage Manager

Leah Taylor

Vocal Coach

Renie Sweeney

Script Consultant

Kate Phillips

Choreography for Eilif’s dance

John Wilson

Set Construction

Joseph McGrath, Christopher Johnson,
Chris Babbie & Ryan Parker Knox

Additional Scenic Painting

Johanna Martinez & Amy Novelli

Hand Props

David Morden

House Manager

Susan Collinet

Box Office Manager

Thomas Wentzel

Box Office Assistants

Susan Koenig, David Morden,
Evren Sonmez & Rebekah Thimlar

Poster, Program & Website

Thomas Wentzel

Clint
Bryson (Lighting Designer) has designed lights
for nearly every Rogue Theatre production. Other lighting design
credits include As Bees in Honey Drown and Golf Game for Borderlands, Woman in Black for Beowulf Alley, and The Seagull for Tucson Art Theatre. Clint is currently
the Shop Foreman, Production Technical Director and Marketing
Director for Catalina Foothills Theatre Department where he designs
and coordinates the construction of all scenery. He is also a
member of Rhino Staging Services, and a regular participant in
Arizona Theatre Company’s Summer on Stage program where
he designs and builds the scenery as well as teaches production
classes.

Leah
Taylor (Stage Manager) was Stage Manager for The Rogue Theatre’s Major Barbara, As I Lay Dying, Shipwrecked! An Entertainment, The New Electric Ballroom, The Winter’s Tale, Journey to the West and The Night Heron, and Assistant to the Stage Manager for The Decameron. She was Stage Manager for The Now Theatre’s The Pillowman, The Bald Soprano and Overruled. Other work includes shows with Winding Road Theatre Ensemble and Sacred Chicken Productions. Leah graduated from the University of Arizona in May 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts in Classics and Anthropology.

Susan
Collinet (House Manager) earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Creative Writing and English Literature from the University of Arizona in 2008. Decades before returning to college as a non-traditional student, Susan spent twenty years in amateur theater, mostly on the East coast, as well as in Brussels, Belgium in the American Theater of Brussels, and the Theatre de Chenois in Waterloo. She has worked in such positions as a volunteer bi-lingual guide in the Children’s Museum of Brussels, the Bursar of a Naturopathic Medical school in Tempe, Arizona, an entrepreneur with two “Susan’s of Scottsdale” hotel gift shops in Scottsdale, Arizona, and as the volunteer assistant Director of Development of the Arizona Aids Project in Phoenix. Susan continues to work on collections of poetry and non-fiction. Her writing has won awards from Sandscript Magazine, the John Hearst Poetry Contest, the Salem College for Women’s Center for Writing, and was published in a Norton Anthology ofStudent’s Writing. In addition to being House Manager, Susan acts as Volunteer Coordinator for the Rogue.

David Morden as The Chaplain and Dylan Page as Kattrin

Photo by Tim Fuller

Our Thanks

Tim
Fuller

Arizona Daily Star

Chuck Graham

Tucson Weekly

Dave Irwin

Jesse Greenberg

Herb Stratford

Shawn Burke

Chris Babbie

Angela Horchem

Karen DeLay

Renie Sweeney

Arizona Theatre Company

Faith Glendenning

John Wilson

Kate Phillips

Cynthia Meier as Mother Courage and Connor Foster as the Young Soldier

Photo by Tim Fuller

Performance
Schedule for Mother Courage and Her Children

Location: The Rogue Theatre at The Historic Y, 300 East University
Boulevard
Free off-street parking! Click here
to see map and parking information.

Performance run time is approximately 2 hours and 25 minutes, including one ten-minute intermission,
and not including music preshow or post-show discussion.